10 Ways to Stay Connected with Your Patients

Stay in touch even while patients are staying home. Hop on social media to help patients relieve stress and stay healthy.

Posted in Coronavirus on Monday, March 30, 2020

Like many others during this unchartered time of COVID-19, you may have temporarily closed your practice. But just because your brick-and-mortar location is closed doesn’t mean you have to lose all connection with your patients.

Social media provides us a great opportunity to stay connected while still practicing social distancing. You’ve likely built up a community on your business Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram page and can use these to reach your patients. (Make sure you are using your business pages, here’s why.

10 Ideas

Use these ideas to connect with your patients from the safety of your home — and maybe even brighten their day.

1. Teach a Yoga Class

Are you a yoga guru? Consider showing some basic movements in a video tutorial. You can get the whole family involved by doing kid’s yoga or even pet yoga — for all the pet parents out there!

Not only is yoga a relaxing activity, but it may help increase flexibility and reduce anxiety for some.

2. Meditation

Amongst the chaos and the unknown right now, everyone could use some tips on how to re-center themselves. Take a few minutes and lead a guided meditation session. Share some best practices and the benefits of taking 5 to 10 minutes to meditate every day.

3. Stretches to Relieve Stress

Social distancing can be stressful. Help your patients relieve the stress by sharing some simple stretches they can do in their homes. Lead a 5- or 10-minute session they can work into their daily routine.

4. Ergonomic Home Office

Many people are now working from home while everyone works to flatten the curve. Remind your patients of the importance of ergonomics and how they can set up an ergonomic home office. Their backs and joints will thank you.

5. Prepare a Favorite Snack

Are you a master chef? (It’s OK – you don’t have to be.) Share your talents with the world by showing how to prepare your favorite snack. Even if it’s something as simple as the childhood favorite ants on a log, this can be a fun way to reconnect with your patients.

6. Tour of Muscles and Bones

Your leg bones connected to the knee bone, the knee bones connected to the….I’m sure you all remember this song from elementary school. Many parents have to fill the role of teacher while their kids are out of school. You can help them out by teaching a short science class and give a tour of the muscles and bones.

7. Joke of the Day

The adage laughter is the best medicine is not completely untrue. The Mayo Clinic found that the short term effects of laughter can relieve stress and soothe tension. You can spread some laughter by sharing a family-friendly joke with your patients.

8. Hidden Talent

Can you sing, play the ukulele, or juggle? Spread some joy by sharing your talents in a video. You can engage with your audience by taking requests.

9. Exercise

With gyms closing, many people may have difficulty sticking to their workout plans. You can help by hosting short online exercise classes. Whether it is something simple like jumping jacks or push-ups, having a workout buddy helps motivate people to stick with their routine.

10. Share Community Updates

Is your local city or police department doing a great job at sharing COVID-19 updates on their social media? Share those with your page as well. By posting this information, your patients have another chance to see important information if they are not following the other pages.

Implementing These Ideas

Are you wondering how to implement these ideas with your patient community? Consider using the Facebook live or Instagram live features. Your audience can watch you in real-time and interact with you in the comments section. You don’t need any fancy video equipment either. Your laptop or cell phone should do the trick.

If you get into a routine of posting live videos, make sure you give them notice on when you will be posting, so they know when to tune in.